A dirty energy deal coming to New Jersey will have major impacts on our environment and public health.

Recently, property owners in northern New Jersey began receiving requests from Pilgrim Pipeline Co. to survey their land for the company’s newly proposed Pilgrim Pipeline. This pipeline would enable Phillips 66, a subsidiary of Conoco Phillips, to import fracked oil to refine at its Linden facility.

In January 2013, Phillips 66 entered into an agreement with Global Partners LP to receive 50,000 barrels of Bakken Shale crude oil daily over five years. Global Partners owns a storage facility in Albany, N.Y., that already receives crude oil from North Dakota by rail.

The Pilgrim Pipeline would connect Linden and Albany, and accelerate the transport of this dangerous fossil fuel to the Phillips refinery. The pipeline would be bidirectional, meaning flow could be reversed to send petroleum products from New York Harbor to upstate New York.

The source of the oil and its consequences for our climate, along with the environmental impact of the project’s construction and operation, are troubling. I urge all property owners to deny survey permission to the company, or rescind permission if it was already granted.

The oil is extracted from the Bakken Shale formation in North Dakota through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, resulting in significant impacts on local air and water quality. The process requires millions of gallons of water mixed with a dangerous cocktail of about 750 chemicals, many of them hazardous to human health, to drill a single well. The chemicals used are not disclosed to the public as they are “industry trade secrets.”

Bakken crude oil is flammable, toxic and corrosive. It is “light oil,” meaning it contains fewer solids and therefore requires less refining — making it highly explosive. Bringing this fuel into our state endangers our families, property and environment.

As with all oil pipelines, the risk of a spill is real. In October, a Bakken crude spill from a North Dakota pipeline resulted in more than 20,600 barrels — equal to 865,200 gallons — escaping into the environment. The event was one of the largest onshore oil spills in recent history, covering seven acres. Soil was contaminated 30 feet below the Earth’s surface. According to the North Dakota health department, the spill will take more than two years to clean up.

The Pilgrim Pipeline, as proposed, would cross New Jersey’s Highlands, which supplies drinking water to half the state’s residents. Such an oil spill here would jeopardize that water supply.

Pipeline construction would have deleterious effects on the open spaces and communities through which it passed. In the Highlands and other sensitive areas, we would see wetlands destroyed, critical habitats for threatened and endangered species leveled to the ground, and impacts on waterways from construction erosion.

The pipeline would pass through communities that already have seen too much air and water pollution as a result of the fossil fuel industry. Linden is already home to more than a dozen pipelines. The last thing the community needs is to import one of the most explosive oil supplies in the world.

Pilgrim Pipeline has indicated it will submit formal applications to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and state agencies in New York and New Jersey within the next six months. Now the company is moving ahead with outreach to municipalities as it further develops its plans.

Especially after Hurricane Sandy, New Jersey needs to oppose fuel sources that contribute to climate change. This pipeline is a good place to start. Instead of investing in infrastructure for more fossil fuels, we need to explore alternatives that do not put our communities at risk or pollute our environment, such as solar and energy efficiency. This pipeline is wrong for New Jersey’s clean energy future and should be rejected.Kate Millsaps is conservation program coordinator for the New Jersey Sierra Club.

Be the first to comment

PAUSE is a grassroots group of individuals who have come together to promote safe, sustainable energy and fight for environmental justice. We engage the greater public to stop the fossil fuel industry’s assault on the people of Albany and our environment.